In the past few games, characters can support one another on the battlefield and increase their stats on offense or defense. This is achieved by fighting alongside each other in battle, and while forming relationships is the same in Shadows of Valentia there is a big change (we’ll get into that more later). The core aspects of relationships and support, however, don’t work the same in the remake.

Like with Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates, characters can raise their support with another character by fighting or defending next to each other on the battlefield. In Shadows of Valentia, these characters can be up to two spaces away, instead of the normal one, and still gain some support.

You’ll know when characters get a support increase after an attack or defense because the two characters will have a heart appear over both stats.

Support ranks go from E to A in Shadows of Valentia.Getting to Rank E is done after about two or three battles but you’ll need quite a few battles with both characters to raise those ranks even higher.

After completing the necessary amount of battles, a tab appears over a character that says “talk”. Move the corresponding character to where the character with the “talk” tab is and speak with them. This will prompt a short dialogue between the two that will dive into their relationship. This is how you raise support between characters.

Unfortunately, you have to do this during battle and not on the overworld map like in previous Fire Emblem games.

It is important to note that you don’t have to prompt the “talk” feature when it first pops up. This option will remain in future turns or battles so you can pick and choose when to do it without having to take away from your present strategy.

EFFECTS

In previous Fire Emblem games, raising support ranks would increase stats. But in Shadows of Valentia they have no such effect. While you can raise the support rank between characters they won’t increase your chances of defeating enemies in battle. Instead, this feature is used to learn more about a character’s motivations and see possible relationships blossom.

While this may be a step back from the freedom to ship and re-ship characters in Awakening and Fates, Shadows of Valentia has a specific story to tell and since it’s a remake this strict relationship tree is to make the story as close to the original as possible.

Still, it should be fun for those who like to see the support dialogue and those individual stories end. However, this also means that characters can’t get married or have kids like they could in previous Fire Emblem games.

LIST OF SUPPORTS

Again, the support ranks in Shadows of Valentia only go from E to A so all of the listed relationships can only go as high as that.

Here’s the list of every character in Shadows of Valentia and who they can foster a relationship with.

Note: this list is still being updated.

Alm

Faye

Clair

Kliff

Tobin

Gray

Tobin

Clair

Tobin

Gray

Kliff

Faye

Alm

Silque

Lukas

Clive

Silque

Faye

Clair

Alm

Gray

Clive

Lukas

Forsythe

Python

Python

Forsythe

CELICA

Celica

Mae

Mae

Boey

Celica

Boey

Mae

Genny

Saber

Kamui

Leon

Leon

Kamui

Valbar

Valbar

Leon

Atlas

Celica

Deen

Jesse

Jesse

Deen

Which characters in Shadows of Valentia do you want to pair up? Let us know if you like the changes to the relationships in the comments section below.